Sia – Chandelier

Prolific song-writer and the mind behind many a chart hit, Australian artist Sia Furler stepped down from touring with her own releases following her last album, We Are Born, in 2010. This year, however, she has returned as the vocalist to her own work with the single ‘Chandelier’.

It’s a pretty different sound to her other records, but then that’s nothing different for Sia. People in the know will hear resemblances to Kat Dahlia’s ‘Gangsta’ in the hip-hop beat, largely minor melody and the singer’s supple, breathy vocals. But Sia was there first, y’know. Lyrically ambiguous, it is a song that both celebrates the spirit of care-free partying, whilst belying a more serious reflection on the motives behind and consequences of that kind of lifestyle.

A definite enhancement to, rather than detraction of ‘Chandelier’ is its music video, directed by Sia herself and Daniel Askill, the director behind the video for ‘Breathe Me’. Inside a bare and surreal-looking flat, a girl wearing a wig (that draws obvious comparison to Sia’s signature hairstyle) proceeds to execute some mesmerising choreography with an absurd physical elasticity that seems to mirror that of Sia’s voice.

The single is a prelude to a new album but one that Sia asserts she will be neither touring nor promoting.